Psalm 3:5-6

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

This evening’s Bible passage is Psalm 3:5-6:

⁵ I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
⁶ I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.

Verse 5 has long been one of my favorite morning prayers, but it’s become especially precious during this pandemic. Waking each morning to a new day, breathing easily, with neither aches nor fever, is a blessing for which I give thanks and rejoice.

I’m aware, of course, that some of you have difficulty sleeping. For you to enjoy a good sleep is a rare treat. Perhaps, when it happens, you give thanks with a gratitude that far exceeds mine. Bless you.

David’s thanksgiving in this psalm wasn’t easily won. He prayed these words not in a time of comfort, waking each morning in his own royal bed to the smell of coffee brewing and with a cooked breakfast awaiting him—or whatever a person of David’s stature liked back then—but at a time of real personal danger. The heading to the psalm tells us that David wrote these words “when he fled from Absalom his son.” (For the story of Absalom’s armed rebellion against his father and David’s flight from Jerusalem, see 2 Samuel 15-18).

David begins the psalm with a recognition of his dire circumstances: “O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me.” Waking, still alive and breathing, is probably not something he took for granted when he dropped off to sleep. It’s almost a surprise, something that encourages him to trust God whatever the circumstances of the new day. He rises from his rough bed, saying, “I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.”

However great the risk we currently face—and it varies according to how close to the front line of public service our responsibilities take us—we can still be thankful day by day for the small things with which God blesses us. It may be a good night’s sleep and the wonder of waking healthy. It may be standing at the kitchen window, as I did today, watching two mourning doves feed alongside one another in a gentle rite of courtship. It may be rediscovering a good book, or having a reassuring phone call or video visit with a good friend, or enjoying a bar of chocolate at home.

Much of the news media would have us focus on the worst. I encourage you to focus on the blessings—however many or few—that come your way each day. A simple sense of gratitude for God’s blessings, even in the midst of a pandemic, will help us stay in close touch with the God who loves and sustains us in Christ and will help us to keep fear at a distance, however many thousands of coronaviruses “have set themselves against us all around.” This is not blind naiveté. It’s godly realism.

Your brother in Christ,

Max